Your Houston News:
Jerry Zaid already knew something about entrepreneurship. As fate would have it, a near-catastrophe turned him into an inventor with more than just an idea.
Zaid, a Pasadena resident, is currently in the patent-pending process of an invention he hopes to introduce to the public within the next year or two years.
“There are going to be moments when you are not going to be available to respond to a phone call or a text and this application responds on your behalf,” Zaid said of iRappU, described as an instant response mobile application that will automatically respond hands-free.
“We’re hearing all these stories about people dying because they were texting while driving,” he said.
According to Distraction.gov, the Official U.S. Website For Distracted Driving, 3,092 people died in car accidents where a distracted driver was at the wheel in 2010, and over 400,000 were injured in accidents involving distracted drivers.
Zaid pitched his idea to a team of IT techs and begin the building process of building the application.
It took him a few months to develop iRappU, he said, and his urgency increased as public awareness – as well as his own – of the dangers of texting while driving increased.
It usually takes five seconds, he said, to be distracted off the road, whether reaching for a cell phone to answer a call or texting or responding to a friend or family member. It will take less time to activate the iRappU before putting the car in drive.